Daily Devotional For Saturday, October 11, 2024

Good morning Southside! We are making our way through the Gospel of Matthew. And we have seen Jesus do some unbelievable miracles that caught His disciples off guard with shock as well as others. Yesterday, we left off with Jesus healing a paralyzed man who was lowered from the roof by 4 of his friends. Jesus’ initial statement to the man, “Your sins are forgiven” caused the religious leaders to have a meltdown. So, Jesus proved He was the Messiah and had the authority to not only heal, but to forgive sins. Let’s go back to the passage and pick up where we left off yesterday. Look at Matthew 9:14-17:

“Then the disciples of John came to Him, asking, ‘Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?’ (15) And Jesus said to them, ‘The attendants of the bridegroom cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. (16) But no one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and a worse tear results. (17) Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved” (NASB).

Today we are looking at some statements by Jesus in verse 17. New Testament scholar Bruce B. Barton shares Jesus’ comparison of the old with the new in these ways::

•  “Law versus grace. The old cloth and old wineskins represent people under the Old Testament Law, and the new cloth and new wineskins represent people under grace. This view, preserved by dispensationalists, stresses the complete break of the Old Testament view of obedience with the New Testament. Well, I personally do not agree with that because of what Jesus says in Matthew 5:17.

•  Old covenant versus new covenant. The old cloth and old wine-skins represent the older and partial understanding of God’s will that had only a glimmer of understanding of God’s grace as exemplified in the gospel. The new covenant would reflect a new way of understanding what true faithfulness to the law would be under Christ’s authority. This view does justice to “so both are preserved” (9:17) because it sees the revealed will of God as present in both old and new. But limiting Jesus’ words to apply to time in history alone misses his point.

• Old system of spirituality versus new system. This view sees continuity in the revealed will of God, both in the Old Testament Scripture and in the New Testament message of Christ. The old cloth and wineskins referred to the old system of application of the law (rigid, legalistic) as typified by the worst teaching of the Pharisees. The old forms and traditions were characterized by the sorrow of fasting. The new attitude of spirituality is characterized by the joy of feasting as seen in Christ and his disciples. New attitudes and methods would be needed. When new attitudes are present, both the understanding of the will of God in Scripture and the new forms will be preserved” (Source: Bruce B. Barton, Life Application Bible Commentary, “Matthew,” p. 184).

There is no question that Jesus’ arrival changed everything from law to grace, from works to faith, from Paradise to heaven. This means that the grace of the Gospel was incompatible with the legalism of the Pharisees in the same way that a patch on an old garment, when washed, would shrink, and pull away from the old garment tearing it even worse than before. Unlike Judaism, the church and Christianity was never meant to be a sect or an extension of Judaism. Jesus came and fulfilled the Law and because of that, the Jews should have recognized Him as the Messiah. Remember what John wrote in John 1:17, “For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ” (NLT).

This means that both law and grace are expressions of God’s plan and character. The Law represented both God’s love and justice; Jesus Christ came and expressed God’s love, mercy, grace, forgiveness, grace and salvation apart from works.If you put new wine into old wineskins, as the gases expanded, the skins would burst. These wineskins were made from goat skins and were sewn tightly around the edges to prevent any leakage. Old wineskins represented the Pharisees and Law. 

There was no way to put the Gospel in that system without causing them to burst. What angered the religious leaders is they could not control Jesus. The religious leaders’ system of rules, rituals, traditions  and regulations were no longer effective to bring about salvation mainly due to the abuse and incorrect teaching of these religious leaders. Both the Law and grace were and are  preserved through Jesus. 

Jesus did not come to “patch up” the old system with its rules, rituals, regulations and traditions, but to create something new. If Jesus had done this, then His message of grace would have been damaged and distorted. The rigidity of the old wineskins and old cloths would break under the new patch and new wine. Jesus’ point was that the rigid application of the old contradicted the original truth from the beginning. 

In the present context, Jesus was using the cloth and wine-skin illustrations to roll back worn-out applications. Jesus didn’t reject fasting; He rejected fasting without purpose and fasting for the wrong reasons. Simply doing it because the Law said so was to miss its point. This means we must ensure that our attitudes and methods for ministry and sharing the Gospel convey the same commitment to the eternal truth of God’s Word while allowing flexibility and plasticity in 

Sharing the Gospel. What is also at stake here in this passage is the message of John the Baptizer and the message of Jesus. In this passage the disciples of John came and asked a question and Jesus responded. New Testament scholar R.T. France writes this:

“Jesus has brought something new, and the rituals and traditions of official Judaism cannot contain it. The explosive exuberance of the new era … must break out of the confines of legalism and asceticism” (Source: R.T., France, Matthew, p. 169).

Meaning it was wrong for the disciples of John the Baptizer to fast because the Messiah, the King was present. To fast for mourning and repentance with Jesus present would like going to a wedding reception and with ashes on your clothes. The Pharisees’ man-made rules and rituals were no longer necessary with the Bridegroom present. It was time to feast, not fast. It was a time to celebrate, not cry. New Testament scholar Stan Toussaint sums it up this way:

“John belonged to the old age; Jesus was the One who was bringing a new dispensation. They should therefore leave the forerunner and join themselves to the King. Unless they did, they could not partake of any new dispensation which Jesus might bring” (Source: Stan Toussaint, Behold the King, pp. 131-132).

Assignment: In Matthew 8, Jesus reached out to people who were considered “outcasts” for all kinds of reasons. When your church wants to reach out of the boundaries to today’s cultural “outcasts,” do you applaud, or do you criticize, citing reasons why this should not be done? When people come to church with physical, mental, and emotional disabilities and challenges, are you one of the first to embrace them or do you keep your distance? Do you judge them or do you grace them? Do you cozy up to them or do you cut-and-run from them? Are you still locked into the worn-out traditions of worship and ministry? Are you open to fresh ways to bring the Gospel and Christ to the world?

Scripture To Meditate On: Isaiah 43:19, “For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland” (NLT).

Prayer To Pray: “Dear Lord, I love my traditions, but I never want them to be a barrier for sharing the Gospel with the lost. I want to be open to new ways, different suggestions and thinking “outside the box”. Instead of shooting down new ideas, convict me to be willing to implement them for Your glory. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”

I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly